


Overheard

by Tea__Bee



Series: WM Week Prompts [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Confessions, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Overheard Conversations, WM Week 2019, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 07:32:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea__Bee/pseuds/Tea__Bee
Summary: Caleb overhears Molly and Yasha talking about him.WM Week Prompt #1: Confessions





	Overheard

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to Eimear for being my beta on these prompts, you're amazing!

“...do about Caleb, Molly?”

Caleb stops in his tracks outside Molly and Yasha’s room when he hears his name. 

“I don't see why I have to do anything about Caleb, Yasha, what are you talking about?”

Yasha scoffs, “You know exactly what I mean. Don't lie to me, Mollymauk, you've never been good at it. I know you like him.”

_ Well, Mister Mollymauk likes everyone, though, doesn't he?  _ Caleb thinks, trying to suppress the sudden jump in his heartbeat at the thought of Molly thinking of him like that. 

“Sure, I like everyone we're traveling with, you know that,” Molly mumbles. Caleb wishes he could see Molly's face because his voice sounds odd but he's even harder to read than normal through the door.

“You know what I mean, and I need you to admit it so we can figure out what we're going to do about it.” Caleb thinks he can hear a smirk in her voice.

Molly laughs. “I don't like him, Yasha.” Caleb feels shame well up in his chest as Molly laughs at the thought. Gods, he’d been an imbecile to hope, to want. He starts to walk away from the door, but stops as he hears Molly speak again, quieter, “Yasha, I think I'm in love with him.” Caleb slaps a hand over his mouth to stifle the gasp he almost lets out at that.  _ Love?  _ Molly loves _ him? _ “But I don't see how that changes anything, he doesn't see  _ me _ like that.”

“Why do you say that?” Yasha says softly. 

“We’ve been traveling together for months. You’d think, if he had feelings for me, he’d have shown it  _ somehow. _ You’d think there’d have been even a blip, something,  _ anything, _ to hint at him loving me, too,” Molly answers her.

“I think you're wrong. I think you're just blind to it, that you've convinced yourself he can't possibly see you the way you want, and you've blinded yourself to what I think are very obvious signs.”

Caleb's eyes widen. Yasha knows. How does Yasha know? He'd only just told Nott the night before, and even  _ she'd _ been shocked. 

… 

_ “Nott, I need to tell you something,” Caleb whispered, more than a little drunk from the night's celebration.   _

_ Nott opened her eyes and squinted at him in the dim light of the candle on the table between their beds. “Everything okay?” She sat up quickly, swaying and bringing her hands to her forehead with a groan. “Are we leaving, do we have to go?” _

_ “No, no, nothing like that, not at all. Nott.” He hesitated. He looked down at his hands, turning them over in his lap and imagining Molly's hand where it had been intertwined with his, earlier in the night when Caleb had nearly fallen off his chair and Molly had reached out to pull him back. “Nott, I have feelings for… for someone. I have for a while… I don't really know what to do about it? I just… I had to tell someone. It's been a long time since I've felt anything like this and… I am very out of practice.” _

_ Nott stared at him, jaw dropped, and suddenly she'd jumped across the gap between their beds and into his lap, her hands on either side of his face.  _ “Caleb! _ Who? Why didn't you tell me sooner?” she screeched into the quiet night. He shushed her with a laugh.  _

_ “It's, ah…” He felt his cheeks heat. “Well, how could it be anyone but Molly?” _

_ Her hands dropped from his face and she tilted her head. “M-Molly? Like,  _ Molly, _ Molly? Mollymauk Tealeaf, tattooed-purple-tiefling, shiny-over-abundant-jewelry, center-of-attention, vibrant-and-wild Molly?  _ That _ Molly?” _

_ “Well,  _ ja, that _ Molly.” He chuckled.  _

_ “Are you playing some sort of prank on me?” She looked around the room as if expecting someone to jump out and laugh. “Did Jester put you up to this?” _

_ “Wha-  _ nein,  _ Nott, I am telling you this because I have kept it inside for so long and it is weighing on me, and I do not know how to handle it. I don't know what to do, and I thought you might help me.” _

_ “Well, I… I'm not exactly the best at love advice, but, I think you should tell him.” It's Caleb's turn to look shocked. “Yeah, tell him, or do some romantic thing, and if he says no or laughs or whatever, I'll… take out his knees and we'll... just leave…” she mumbled the end of the sentence as she started to doze off from all the alcohol. _

_ “Do you think he'd laugh at me, Nott?” he said quietly. There was no response and Caleb looked down to where she lay in his lap and saw her eyes were closed and her mouth hung slightly open as she let out a small snore. He sighed and picked her up, tucking her into bed before climbing into his own to stare at the ceiling.  _

_ …  _

“...think you should tell him.” Caleb jolts back to the present as he hears Yasha.

Molly lets out a bitter laugh. “Sure, Yash, I’ll just blurt it out,  _ ‘hey Caleb I’ve sort of fallen head over heels for you, wanna spend the rest of your life with me?’ _ And then he laughs in my face and leaves and we never see him or Nott ever again. Or, alternatively, I make him horrendously uncomfortable, and Nott kills me in my sleep, and then they leave.”

“First if all, I think you're being overdramatic. While that is nothing new, I also think you're wrong. I think you're just a little too blinded by your anxiety over this to see that there  _ have  _ been hints, and he has been showing you, you just don't see it.” Yasha's voice goes soft and Caleb wonders if he should be listening. This is such a private and vulnerable moment, but he can’t tear himself away.

“I don't know. Maybe I'll try to pay more attention. Be more… obvious, though I don't see how that's possible.”

“Maybe being obvious isn't the issue. Maybe it’s whether he believes it's just how you are around everyone or if it’s you being sincere,” Yasha speculates. 

He hears Molly hum in response and bites the skin at the edge of his thumb. He has some planning to do. He leans against the wall by the door for a few more moments to see if he can hear anything else, but suddenly he hears footsteps coming towards the door and the knob starts to turn, so he turns on his heel and runs for the stairs.

...

Molly walks out of his and Yasha's shared room to go down for breakfast and catches a glimpse of someone's coat turning the corner. He takes a deep breath, and he thinks he can almost smell Caleb's fresh-turned-dirt, ink, recently-extinguished-flame smell, but that's probably wishful thinking.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited about WM Week! I have three of the prompts written so far, all building on each other like I did with the Cuddle prompts before. Hopefully, I can finish them all, I'm trying really hard, but I do have a lot of work this week. Can't wait for your comments, I love hearing from everyone. See you tomorrow with the next prompt!


End file.
